The God Breaker's Ruin

by Billy Spencer

“Hey, do you think Grendil Is going to keep needing these dead bodies? He seems to be asking for more and more each week,” One of the vorpal men said taking out their cell and typing on it.

  “Don’t ask questions, you know how he is when someone questions him, especially now. He seems to be on edge about something,” The other vorpal said turning around to pop the trunk open from the driver's seat. They wore suits like they were going to the opera. One wore red, and the other a dark blue.

  Nick took his chance and went to the dead bodies of different people, men, and women laying on top of each other like hunted animals. He grabbed some of the guts that were spilling out of one of the men and started rubbing them on his body. He then lifted one of the females and slid himself under her, and waited. Okay, not doing this again, trying not to puke, please don’t puke, god the smell is god awful, like rotten meat and piss mixed with shit. He thought.

  “Gonna grab these first, they seem lighter than the chunkier ones. Then we will come back for the rest and bring the truck with us,” One of the vorpal said grabbing them each one by one and placing them inside the trunk.

  He held his breathe as best he could, slowed his heart to a minimum, and just hoped the rotting smell would be enough so they didn’t detect him. He saw in the distance Veronica giving him two thumbs up, she smiled at him and walked towards the castle. Oh, that must be nice to go through the front door, can’t let me do it, no daddy would get mad and pissy. He thought.

  He kicked the bodies off of him and stared around the room he was in. It had humans on hooks, some were skinned and pieces cut off of them. He saw multiple fridges and a giant hole in the middle of the room. The light barely dimmed, it felt like he was in a giant coffin. “This must be where they prepare meals and get rid of the extra, would hate to be the one that would end up at the bottom of that hole,” he said looking into the abyss as the blood dripped from the room into it.

  Veronica opened the door and slammed it behind her, she looked at Nick and relaxed her body. “Thank god you were able to get by. I wasn’t sure if you would be found out, but I guess they were just in a hurry,” Veronica said walking over to Nick holding Silverbite in one hand.

  “Yea, it was disgusting, but I’m here, so this is your home, must be nice,” Nick said brushing off as much of the fat, blood, and skin off his body. “Never doing that again, but at least now I can tell people I sneaked into a castle.”

  She went to the door and turned the knob opening it slyly. She peaked her head out and motioned Nick forward. “Just remember to let me do the talking, keep your cool. I don’t know what my father has been up to.”

  Nick and Veronica were walking in the hallway towards Grendil's throne room. The castle was quiet, no one was home, and the blood moon shown through the window lighting the way to his throne. “Maybe no one is here, we probably came at a bad time,” he said stepping softly and slowly towards their destination.

  “Don’t be silly, my father is here, he has to be,” Veronica said holding Silverbite in front of her, aiming it as she inched closer.

  “Do you think Grendil is probably hiding from us? maybe he is in the shadows somewhere, this is a pretty big castle…I still haven’t seen the swamp monster season for this year yet. Do you think Amadaya will fall in love with Joe, do you watch that sh…” Nick said looking around the room. He heard something move, like a rat racing away on the floor.

  “Calm down, just stop and collect yourself,” Veronica said walking in front of him and placing one hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, you are fine, I’m right here, we are in this together, we can do this.”

  They continued to walk down the hallway and got to Grendils throne room. It was empty and both of them shook their heads and were about to leave when a long bony hand wrapped itself on the top of the chair that was empty and a vorpal walked from out of the shadows. Their hair was white and slicked back, skin pale as white as the moon, eyes bloodshot, and fangs that looked like knives as a smile spread across his face.

  Veronica stood in silence for a moment. She grabbed Silverbite turned around and aimed it. “Hello father, were you hiding in here the whole time?” Veronica said tensing her arms.

  “I knew the two of you were already in the castle. I have been waiting for you both. I see your mother gave you her old relic, that’s good, means you are starting to get some backbone in you daughter,” Grendil said sitting down on his throne cupping his hands smiling at Veronica. “I give and give to you all, and you just spit it back in my face, you were someone that I saw could lead the vorpal into the future in this new world.”

  “I don’t want whatever you have a plan for our kind father, and I’m sure Lily doesn’t either. Does she even know what you have been doing in secret?” Veronica said holding her crossbow still. Her eyes narrowed on him, and her lips tighten.

  “It is something that has to be done, the dirty work to keep our people thriving,” Grendil said leaning forward, resting both palms on his legs. “Would you not do the same to save your people? That’s what a leader does, they give their people what they need, they don’t need to know every single detail, just to know that they will continue to thrive.”

  “That’s bullshit, you didn’t do that for them, you did it for yourself. You wanted to be seen as this great person, to have it to where nothing bad happened, but you did it at what cost? People who were your own, who were my people also, but you just threw them to the side like cattle,” Nick said walking towards Grendil.

  “You’re the trouble maker. Beta has told me much about you. What you search for, the mess that you caused under and topside. You don’t care who you take down with you, do you? Willing to have friends, family, and people you hardly know to risk themselves for you. You have no clue what it takes to run all of this,” Grendil said stretching out his arms smiling.

  “What else have you done?” Veronica said, her head looking towards the floor. She gripped one fist closed.

  “I have done what I had to, to make sure our people didn’t starve in fifty or a hundred years.”

  “Cut the crap father, what else did you do? Were you the reason why Jake isn’t here right now?”

  “He knew what he was getting himself into. The boy was young and just wanted to party and have fun, he would of let it slip, he had to be silenced.”

  “He looked up to you. I LOOKED UP TO YOU. Is that all that you are trying to hide, is it?”

  “I handle my affairs with others, you have to sometimes get your hands dirty. It has always been US against THEM,” Grendil said pointing a finger at Nick.

  “Did you kill the aerion? were you the reason they died topside?” He said grabbing lightborne and unsheathing it.

  Grendil sat back on his throne and tapped his fingers together. “Let me ask you something human. Humans have a Heaven, a Hell, land of the light, shadow, and brimstone, or whatever you like to call it. Do you know what us the eternal have?”

  He never gave any thought to it before, never entered his mind. Where did they go to when they passed on? Their reward for living their lives and seeing each day passed, even when they were immortal they were never truly immune from death. Nick looked at Grendil, his eyes narrowed on him, his grip on Lightborne tighten. “No, never gave it any thought. I’ve been too busy trying to get into God's good gracious,” he said smirking.

  “We have no place to call our promised land. You see, we were made as some sort of mistake, a nightmare that got out from the darkness of time. The almighty ignores us, they see us as just low creatures less than bugs. When we die whether it is vorpal, gargoyle, undead, half-breed, or whatever type of eternal we have, we cease to exist. We live a life where nothing truly matters in the long run. How would you feel if you lived every single day knowing that in the end, you will not get that chance to see your first love, your father, or your mother?” Grendil said slamming his fist into the arm of the throne cracking it.

  “You son of a bitch, you had them killed, you used a will wisp to do it so you
didn’t get your hands dirty,” Nick said pointing lightborne at Grendil.

  The old vorpal smirked at him and got up from his throne walking towards one of the windows. “When you live as long as I have you keep somethings in the shadows. The funny thing about it was how easy it was. People would have assumed they went to the undercity and let themselves indulge in the fun of sleeping with humans, and eternals. A little bit of powder, some tonic to go with their night with different men and women, and humans wouldn’t care. They would assume that they would deserve it, make fun of them. They would go online and talk about how they lived better and more pure lives than that aerion and the almighty should have picked them. Others would talk about how true believers shouldn’t question what happened, that it was meant to be, and the aerion was a sign from the almighty that they were watching them. To keep people in line, to spread a bit of chaos. I miss the old ways, us against humans, much simpler times.”

  “You had no reason to do what you did to them, only to spread chaos, to pit people against each other, why father?” Veronica said pointing Silverbite at him.

  “Because this world has reached its peaked, it has gone as far as it can. It has to start over. Only they can help start the world over, and when they do, we the eternals will be the ones who live topside and the humans will be at the bottom licking the mud off our boots,” Grendil said smashing the window in front of him with his hand.

  “You can’t get away with this father, you have to turn yourself in. You are betraying our people, trying to use fear of humans to try and get them to destroy what the awakening gave us,” Veronica said inching herself closer towards him.

  “The awakening, gave us what? It gave us nothing, it took all of our protections away and we were meant to suffer and starve.No daughter as much as I love you, love Lily, our people, our world deserves better and I will be the one that brings in the new age,” Grendil said jumping out of the window and onto the rooftop. “Come forth human, fight for your people, fight for the aerion that you were so late to save. You want to rid me, I can feel it in your blood. Are you afraid of me? Or are you afraid of dying in the darkness alone looking up into the sky and having no one by your dying side?”

  53

  Veronica and Nick walked outside on the rooftop of the castle. It was flat and they saw at the end of the roof was a clock tower that hid a portion of the red moon. She saw her father with his hands pointed up into the sky and his head leaning back, cackling like a mad man. “It seems that I have lost him for good, no matter what I try to say, he will always try to justify himself as doing what’s best for our people. He has lost himself,” she said walking towards Grendil with Nick by her side.

  “Let it be known on this night, this day that one of our own has decided to become a traitor. That she, my daughter decided to go against me and for who? A filthy human.The same types that took one of our own recently.Oh, how I miss Jake, how he was like a son that I never had. Do not worry, I will make sure that she pays for what she has done,” Grendil said standing at the edge of the roof looking down at the other eternals walking in the streets.

  She stood there, her blood boiling inside her, hearing lies come out of her father's mouth. Looking at her mother's crossbow Silverbite, she knew that she had to stop her father, to put him down. “You would bring everyone down around you, and spit in the dead faces just to make yourself look good, just to hide your demons,” she said aiming Silverbite and letting the bolts talk for her darting towards Grendil.

  He caught the bolts with one hand and crushed them with ease. Smirking he darted towards and grasped Veronica's neck in the blink of an eye. “That puny weapon would never work on me, you do not know how to use it girl. You fight with it without knowing how to ride a bike, and you think that holding such power means you can be filled with power? I thought your mother and Jake taught you better. Then again, he never did love you,” Grendil said tossing Veronica towards the edge of the roof.

  She barely caught herself, she was hanging on barely with the help of Silverbite, for some reason she couldn’t transform, she felt weaker, it was a foreign feeling to her. My body feels so tired when he threw me. I feel like my energy got taken out of me. Those people are just starring, recording all of this, a few cheering on Grendil. Just like humans, they rather stay out and preserve themselves. She thought.

  Grendil and Nick were battling against each other on the roof. Nick was using lightborne the best he could but Grendil was faster, more powerful. Every time he swung down for a killing blow he was met with nothing but air. Veronica saw that he was getting tired by the moment, she pulled herself up slowly and knelt trying to gather herself. “I won’t let you down, I can’t. You were a friend, a brother, and you deserved better even if you did some shitty stuff. Your life is more than just a footnote in the history of vorpals,” she said picking up Silverbite and loading up a few bolts examining the crossbow thinking how her mother was able to fight against monsters.

  Grendil grabbed Nick with one hand and held him up like a bag of nothing, with his fingers wrapped around his neck. Little small mouths with teeth appeared in his calm and started to suck on Nick's neck slowly. Veronica couldn’t stop starring at the small mouths and how they were on her father, she had never seen them before. “Stop, let him go, you’re hurting him, he can’t take it for that long, you’ll kill him,” she yelled trying to run as fast as she could towards them.

  “You have grown soft, you see these humans as little playthings, oh how the vorpal have fallen quite a bit, or should I say the whole undercity. It’s disgusting seeing eternals and humans show love and affection towards each other, how the humans infect our young into a mindset of something different. Tell me human, you fight for the dead aerion, why?” Grendil said holding Nick closer to his face.

  He grunted, struggling to get the words out.“Every life has meaning, they mattered to someone, maybe not me, nor you, but someone demands justice for what happened to them,” Nick said using both his hands to force himself free.

  Veronica saw Nick on the floor with lightborne at his side, he was moving his legs barely, and his head was going left to the right talking and pointing to her. “Not one more hand on him or else,” she said holding up Silverbite aiming it at Grendil.

  “What did I tell you, last time girl, you aren’t ready to wield that, you are nothing but a fool who keeps trying to have a different outcome. You can’t stop me, you won’t stop me, so drop it, and let your little friend die,” Grendil said walking towards her.

  She closed her eyes, only listened to his footsteps tap on the cement and how louder they got as he got closer. She thought of her mom, her best friend, the people she met, and the memories she shared with them. Taking a deep breath, she cleared her mind. “Shoot true, shoot smart, never give up, never let the abyss consume you. It is the way we as monster slayers keep the fight against the shadows alive,” she said as bolts started flying out of Silverbite like an animal who was hungry for its prey. Each shot connected to Grendil whether it was his shoulder or chest, the bolts found their mark.

  “I don’t understand, I didn’t sense it, didn’t see it,” Grendil said dropping to his knees, staring at the blood moon.

  Nick walked and stood next to Veronica. He leaned against her shoulder staring at his phone. “They know, everything. Everything you said was recorded. Everyone knows that you are the one who betrayed your people,” Nick said showing his phone to Grendil.

  “No, no, what have you done? You ruined it, all the masters will be mad, they were supposed to come, you are ruining it all. They can not believe you, they have to believe me. I was the one that was saving our people,” Grendil said getting up from the ground looking at the mob of vorpal, gargoyles, werewolves, and others staring at him with disappointment.

  “That’s enough father, you will turn yourself in, there is nothing else you can do. You have caused enough pain and done enough harm, give it up already,” Veronica said lowering Silverbite. All she saw was an old vorp
al who was past his prime, who refused to get with the times and wanted to rule in fear. That power can change anyone, no matter how good the person is, no one should have everything at their fingertips.

  “Our people must be saved, I was chosen,” Grendil said jumping off the roof into the crowd of eternals. He pushed them aside, stumbled past them, and disappeared into the darkness of the streets.

  Veronica stood there looking at Silverbite. She knew she could have ended him right then and there, but he already lost, it would only be a matter of time before the Draken police arrested him. She didn’t want to take his life, to end it in an instant, it would make her feel good at the moment, she knew that now, but he deserved to pay for what he did.

  “Can’t breathe that well right now. I see color dots, is he dead?” Nick said laying on the floor looking at the sky.

  She looked at the red moon, she hoped the best for her people. The darkness in the undercity sure wasn’t too wide or as opened as the world of topside, and the blood moon was only there as a way to keep them at bay, but it was home, dirt and all. “We should get you to Cameron's, we can talk about it there,” Veronica said, helping Nick up and smiling at him.

  54

  He stumbled into an abandoned house, it had rats roaming around and bugs crawling on rotten food that was on the floor. The windows were broken and small toys were laid around. He sat against the wall holding one hand on the bolt that Veronica shot into his chest, he pulled it out slowly, the pain felt like someone was digging deep inside his skin and pulling his bone through the skin. “That damn girl, she will pay for what she did, especially that human.”

  You were robbed of what was meant to be yours Grendil, to become a true King. The girl and humans took it away from you, from your people.

  He turned to try to see where that voice was coming from, nothing but the sound of wind and the movement of tree branches. “Master, are you here, where are you?”